Facedown
by Woop D.D. Doo
Summary: Luka is disappointed to hear that she has to do a science project with her own personal pest, Miku Hastune. But when a small accident happens and the two get closer to one another, new dangers arise...slight shoujo-ai.
1. Drive Me Crazy

"She drives me crazy, Rin," Luka sighed heavily, slumping down onto her schoolbooks. "I just can't stand her!"

Rin patted her reassuringly on the shoulder and closed her eyes sympathetically. The golden-haired girl named Rin adjusted her white headset and sighed with her.

"I mean, you wouldn't understand…you're just a kid…but…" Luka muttered. Rin gazed up at Luka with her large sky-blue eyes and blinked, annoyed. Rin crinkled her nose angrily but said nothing-being the age of seven, she thought she knew everything and boasted about it, but not much information was held in her head.

"Sorry, Rin," Luka apologized quickly, shaking her magenta-haired head swiftly. "I know you know more than I give you credit for."

Luka stacked her books atop one another and picked them up, filing the hard-covered books into her red backpack that hung from the back of her chair.

"So, what's her name?" Rin asked innocently, leaning against the back of her library chair.

"Miku – Miku Hatsune, I think." Luka growled, leaning closer. "She has this disgusting cyan hair and eyes, and she's really hyper, like she just drank a gallon of coffee or something. She thinks she's the coolest thing since canned beans."

"Canned beans?" Was all Rin picked up from it at first, before scratching her blonde head and shrugging. "Just 'cause you're hyper doesn't mean you're annoying, you know. Anyway, I'm sure she isn't that bad to work with-and all you guys have to do is a science project. It won't be too awful, I'm sure."

"Yeah, whatever," Luka grumbled, refusing to believe that any good would come from this. "Listen, I got to go. I'll see you after school tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay, Luka. See you." Rin stood with Luka and trotted behind her until she left the library, then rushed off to browse the kid's books with her friend Len.

Luka slung her backpack across her shoulder, brooding and seething. She hated Miku, she decided. After being paired up for a science project that involved chemicals burning cloth, the two had been forced to hang out during lunch together, planning on how to achieve the goal of the experiment. High school was tough, Luka decided, especially with Miku following you around all day.

She practically stalked Luka through the halls, chatting jubilantly at her locker and asking if they could hang out after school together. God, Luka hated her cheer and pestering!

Luka decided to just ignore her after a while, but it seemed like she was always there-sharing all of her classes, sitting next to her during lunch, living close to her house.

The two didn't live in the nicest neighborhood possible, to put it kindly. It was severely crime-ridden and not the best place for young girls to live in-the streetlights didn't work and alleys hung around every single-story decaying house in the town. The only nice place was the library, where Luka and her young friend Rin would hang out after school some days.

Luka's keys jingled as she approached the door of her small, broken-down home with a squat roof and chipping paint. She unlocked it after fumbling a bit and pushed open the heavy thing, throwing her book-bag down beside the door and flicking on the light. Her mom wouldn't be home yet-she hardly ever was home from her job at a 'dancing bar', as her mother called it, but she was loving enough and at least bought Luka food and necessities. The bottles lining every one of the cupboards in her home clattered with every movement you made in the house.

Luka slumped down on the couch and flicked on the television, bored as the bottles covering the coffee table clanged together. She should've been doing her homework…but, eh, she didn't feel like it. She turned past the news station and to the next channel, only static appearing on the small screen. She flipped down-just static, again. She turned back to the news and sighed heavily, sinking into her ratty couch.

Her eyelids began to droop almost immediately, her pink hair resting in front of her tired eyes, and soon she was buried in a deep sleep.

She woke up late, eyes shooting open like racecars. She jumped up from the couch, knowing she was late. She didn't bother with brushing her teeth or hair, and she didn't wear make-up, so all she had to do was pick up her backpack full of unfinished homework and leave the door…crap, unfinished homework! She bit hard down on her tongue and cursed.

As soon as she shut the door, facing the chipped paint, a loud honk beeped from behind her. She whizzed around to see a shoddy-looking red car rolling very slowly down the road. It inched near the curb, and Luka cursed again when she caught sight of who was waving giddily from the passenger's seat: Miku.

Luka tried to smile genuinely back, but it came out completely fake.

"Luka, Luka!" Miku cried in a sing-song voice. "Do you need a ride?"

Oh, God! Luka felt torn. Either say no as she wanted and hurt Miku to the point of not finishing their project, or say yes and have to ride a quarter of a mile with the most annoying person she had ever met.

"Yeah, sure," Luka grunted, knowing she would regret this later.

As soon as she entered the vehicle, she knew that Miku was even poorer than she was. The seats were tattered and ripped, the engine sputtering as it crawled along. The windshield was dirty and the floors were littered with garbage, duct tape substituting for one of the windows.

The man driving the car had dark blue hair and a lighter scarf of the same color wrapped loosely around his neck. He chewed lazily on the edge of a cigarette as he glanced back at Luka.

"Hey," He grumbled, clutching an owning hand around Miku's thin shoulder. She winced away slightly, as if there was a scar underneath her black arm wraps. Luka narrowed her aqua eyes at the pair, sniffing disdainfully. She hated couples; she found them quite disgusting-kissing in public, holding unwashed hands, giggling stupidly with one another.

The ride to school was bumpy and uncomfortable. The seatbelt nearest Luka was too torn to even be an excuse for protection, so she was thrown around in the backseat with every turn.

It felt like forever in the stiff silence, but the trio eventually arrived at their High School-V's School for the Gifted and Talented. Despite being a very poorly built and maintained school and the fact that most of the students were neither gifted nor talented, Luka loved her school. The extended one-story brick building stretched far into the city, as its campus also included a college.

The car rolled to a reluctant stop, and Luka jumped out. Miku opened the door after her, but as she picked up her book-bag the man driving grabbed her forcefully and pulled her into a sloppy kiss. Luka stuck her tongue out, turning away from the two. She didn't notice Miku flinch away.

"Thanks for the ride," Luka called over her shoulder.

"Yeah, whatever…" The blue-haired man growled in response, eyes darting around in search of a parking space. He spat out his cigarette as his ratty car pulled off again.

Miku managed a smile to Luka, waving slightly.

"We should be getting to first period," Luke muttered, groggy and unhappy. Miku never failed to put a damper on her mood-especially since they'd been paired up for the project.

The day was uneventful until lunch, when, as Luka pushed through the crowded, bustling cafeteria, Miku appeared in the seat beside her.

"Hiya, Luka!" She chirped happily, bright as ever. She seemed to only be quiet when that blue-haired boy was around. Luka glanced around in search for him, hoping for him to show up and silence the shorter teen.

"Uh…hey, Miku…" Luka wasn't used to people speaking to her, other than Miku-the one who had been stalking her through school all day. Luka squirmed, feeling odd and annoyed by the twin-pigtailed pest. She picked at her unidentifiable food, keeping her head down. Her pink hair hung in a curtain around her face.

"Hey, I've been thinking," Miku produced an apple from her pocket and chewed on it thoughtfully. "We should get together sometime at one of our house's."

Luka gave her a stern look.

"Uh, you know, for the science project, of course!" Miku quickly swallowed, shaking her head and waving her hands wildly.

"Yeah…sounds great." Luka adjusted her own headset and nodded, taking an experimental bite of the food on her plastic tray.

Miku seemed brighter than ever, grinning wildly. _Must not have many friends,_ Luka thought darkly.

"Alright! Does tomorrow sound good?" Miku chewed more of her apple, spraying crumbs onto Luka's plate. She pushed it away from herself, wrinkling her nose.

"Yeah, I'll be over at your place at five." Luka grumbled. She didn't feel like cleaning up the bottles littering her house just for Miku.

"Wonderful!" Miku clapped her hands, bouncing in her seat.

_Yeah, _Luka snorted internally, sarcastic. _This is wonderful._


	2. Burn

"Alright, so we have to have three kinds of cloth…silk, fleece, and leather." Miku tapped her chin thoughtfully. "And the chemicals we use to burn the stuff are bleach, chlorine, and cleaning product…"

Luka tapped her pencil impatiently on her notebook, nodding at Miku's every word and attempting to ignore the odor wafting through her house.

Empty pizza boxes and litter scattered the floor, causing the carpet to be almost invisible. Scents of dirty laundry and feces floated around the two. _Must have a cat somewhere,_ Luka thought. Luka tried to be polite and not pinch her nose as she tiptoed around the trash on the ground.

"Excuse the mess," Miku had laughed when Luka first stepped in. "Kaito lives here, and he's not…the cleanest being of all…"

Kaito-that was the blue-haired kid's name. He was a year older than Miku and Luka, in his last year of high school, but apparently Miku and him were together. Miku still acted squeamish whenever she spoke to or about him, though. Luka wondered why.

Now Luka and Miku sat beside one another on the ratty couch, reading over the science project instruction sheet. Everyone in the class was doing the same experiment, which Luka, creative mind she was, found to be quite stupid. Whoever did it best got the highest grade, she guessed.

"They've already supplied all of the materials…um…since this is due in three weeks and we'll finish the experiment today, we can finish the poster early!" Miku grinned at Luka. She looked away. Nobody ever smiled at her.

The supplies were gathered out of Miku's backpack and set out on the dining table (which had to be cleared off because of the rat droppings and rotting food lying on the plastic thing). Luka was confident in herself on this one-she knew it would be easy. She could ace the experiment as long as Miku cooperated with her.

"Alright, first we need a few plates so we don't stain the table." Luka pointed at nothing. Miku nodded and dashed to the sink, piled up with dirty dishes. She retrieved a plate caked with something red, scratched it off with her fingernail, and laid it down on the table.

"Alright, we've got that. What next?" Miku put her hands to her hips.

"Um…we should probably set out all of our materials and put goggles on."

"Uh…Goggles?" Miku scratched her head and laughed anxiously. "I'm afraid Kaito doesn't have any of those around here."

"So this is Kato's house?" Luka blurted out. Damn it, shouldn't have said that.

Miku sighed and began to place the small bottles of chemicals and samples of cloth on the plate.

"I live with him now. I don't have…never mind." Miku coughed loudly into her pale fist.

Luka coughed back, and Miku returned it. They eyeballed each other sideways and then swiftly turned away. Luka's face burned with embarrassment.

"So, uh, we should do this, huh?" Miku interrupted the smothering silence. "If we want to get it done, that is!"

She was back to being cheery. Luka stood from her unevenly balanced wooden chair and stood a fair distance away from Miku.

"So, we should start with the math." Luka said quietly. "Three times three is nine, so there are nine possible solutions that will turn up."

Miku stood in a stunned silence for a few moments, mouth slightly ajar. Luka cleared her throat to clear the silence.

"Wow, you're so smart!" Miku suddenly cooed loudly, jumping up and clicking her heels together. "Cool, we should write it down in our-crap, do you have your Science Notebook?"

"You bet," Luka turned to her red backpack, slung over the back of her chair, and filed through it until she found her tattered composition notebook.

Tapping the torn cover with her fingernails, she opened it to a blank page and produced a pencil from her pocket. She very quickly scrawled a data table and showed her math.

"Now, for the bleach…" Luka turned to Miku.

She already held a bottle and the cap in her hands, grinning sheepishly.

"Sorry, there, Luka Megurine!" She giggled. "I couldn't wait."

Luka sighed heavily before reaching towards the bleach, mentally cursing at Miku for knowing her last name. She would have to pour the liquid on the silk herself. Miku wasn't reliable enough to do this…

As Luka reached forward, the blue-haired Miku pulled back while her foot made contact with a pizza box lying on the floor, and the small sample bottle of bleach floated through Miku's fingers.

The opened cylinder hung in the air for a moment, seemingly suspended as Luka's eyes widened and Miku's face fell. Then it continued to fall towards Miku's hip and-_pop_-smacked opened-end up directly above her hip.

The wretched, sobbing screams of pain Luka expected to hear never came. Embarrassed, she removed her fingers from her ears and coughed nervously, quickly fetching a somewhat-dirty paper towel form the kitchen counter and sopping up most of the staining liquid from the ground before realizing that Miku just got freaking _bleach _on her hip.

"Oh my-holy-Miku!" Luka, stunned, felt her eyes widen as she stares into Miku's eyes, anxious. "Are you alright? That looked like…ow…"

"I'm okay," Miku stated evenly, clenching her teeth. "Do you have bandages and that alcohol stuff at your house?"

_We've got plenty of alcohol, I'll tell you that. _Luka thought grimly, wanting to punch herself. If she just let the bleach burn her, things could be bad. But if she led Miku to her house and she saw all of the bottles…well, things could be bad.

"Yeah, I do," Luka grabbed her by the shoulder to stabilize her and led her out the door, across the street, and in another door-this time her own.

Miku's eyes widened at the sight of so many of the glass cylinders and orbs, but quickly forced her gaze to dart away. Luka allowed her to lean on her shoulder, pursing her lips as she ushered her as fast as she could to the tiny, grungy bathroom.

Miku seemed to be used to messy walls and floors, because the blue-haired girl wasn't fazed in the least by the bathroom's.

Luka allowed Miku to sit hinderingly on the rusting toilet lid as her hands dashed to the medicine cabinet, swiftly fumbling for the gauze wrap and peroxide.

"Here, I'll pour it on, and then you can wrap it, okay?" Luka wasn't sure if she was qualified to do this-or if it was the right thing to do in this situation-but she was going through with it anyway.

Miku didn't make a peep as Luka unscrewed the small white cap to the brown bottle and let it drizzle onto the small burn mark, sizzling like lava. Surprised, Luka frowned slightly and raised her eyebrows. This happy-go-lucky girl was tougher than Luka had thought. Luka would've been punching and shrieking at whoever was pouring it on by now.

When she was finished, she left Miku alone in the bathroom so she could wrap her hip up and attempted to clear off some of the clattering bottles that lined the tables like soldiers.

When Miku hobbled out of the bathroom, grinning, she tapped Luka on the shoulder. Luka turned only to be enveloped with a warm bear hug. Surprised, Luka raised an eyebrow and shrugged away.

"What was that for?" Luka tried not to sound rude, but she didn't like people to touch her. Miku's smile faded only a bit.

"Thanks for helping me, Luka Megurine!" She chirruped, crossing her arms behind her back.

_Stop saying my last name, for God's sake!_ Luka wanted to shout, but mustered a quick, painted-on smile in return. Miku observed her beat-up living room and grinned wider.

"I like your house. It's much better than Kaito's." Miku laughed brightly. Shocked, Luka frowned. Nobody had ever complimented her house before-then again; nobody had ever come into her house, really…

"Alright, we should be getting back to our experiment, right?" Luka managed another false smile and allowed Miku to lean against her once more as she limped back to her house.

_This girl is like a superhero. She's not feeling practically any pain at all, and she got freaking bleach spilt on her hip! _Luka snorted to herself and shook her pink-haired head, rolling her blue eyes.

As soon as the door opened, Miku seemed to freeze up, breathing in sharply. Confused, Luka turned in rapid circles, sending her un-brushed hair in a wave around her face.

"What?" She whispered, frightened that maybe a burglar had gotten in while they'd been out. They had left the door open, after all, and it wouldn't be very rare for this neighborhood…

"Kaito," Miku breathed softly, eyes widening. "He was out at the club. I can smell it."

Luka wondered how she could possible do something like that (putting aside the fact that's Luka thought her to be a superhero, it was not plausible) as she turned, turned, saw nothing, turned…

"Oh! Jesus!" She crashed into the broad chest of a man. Startled, she stepped back hurriedly and glared up at the blue-haired guy.

"Erm, sorry." Luka tried nervously, but the look of absolute pissed-off-ation on the guy's face was enough to make her think twice about trying to apologize.

Kaito was staring into the kitchen. Luka and Miku followed his gaze until they found the awful, horrendous, terrible sight of a big, fat, white stain on the tiled floor.

Miku mumbled something breathily under her breath, and Luka remained slack-jawed and embarrassed as she stared at the spill.

"Luka Megurine," Kaito's gruff voice felt like broken chalkboards piercing her eardrums. Flinching at her full name, she gazed up at the man.

"I think it's time you leave now."

He rolled up his sleeves.

Miku's eyes watered.

Luka bit her tongue, fetched her book-bag from the kitchen, and left, shutting the door behind her and mentally swearing at herself for not noticing the way Miku was silent around that dude, how she flinched away from his touch.

She wasn't a hero. She knew exactly what would happen. But it was none of her business…was it? Who was she supposed to ask for advice on this? Should she ask for advice on this? It's not like she could talk about this with Rin-or anyone else, for that matter.

It would be too dangerous for both her and Miku.


	3. Glaring Eyes

The following day at school, Luka slumped down in her seat and spared a glance at the other kids in the class. The super-tall dude in front of her with the purple hair annoyed her, as she could never get any sight of the blackboard. The brown haired chick beside her was always smuggling sips from a small flask concealed in her skirt pocket.

Sighing, Luka leaned against her palm and thought briefly about closing her eyes and dozing before snapping them back open.

She hadn't gotten any sleep last night, having been tossing and turning and thinking. Why hadn't she done anything? She should've done something…she could've done something! Did this mean she was evil-a bad person, going to Hell?

She certainly felt like it.

Starting as the bell rang and jolted her back awake, Luka jumped and earned a few chortles from her classmates. Embarrassed, she slumped down over her desk.

Another student person walked through the door and handed the teacher a late slip, taking a seat to the far left of Luka. She didn't recognize her at first, but that hair…no way.

The oversized hat hung over her face, completely shadowing it, and the long clothes that cloaked her entire body…but the hair…the hair!

Luka couldn't stop staring, open-mouthed and stunned.

She was still staring halfway through the lesson, when the teacher, a not-easily-amused woman with one-sided blonde ponytail, cleared her throat and pointed to the girl with the hat.

"Excuse me, Miss. Please remove your hat." The teacher tapped her pointer stick on a stack of books lying on her desk. Then kindly added with a false, mocking smile: "School policy."

"I'd rather not," the quiet voice responded. A few mutters rippled through the class, shocked that 1) she was actually back-talking to Mrs. Neru, and 2) She was being _quiet. _She was never being _quiet. _She was always loud and annoying and-

"Ah-ah-ah, there will be no back-sassing your teachers, _Miss." _Mrs. Neru was attempting to keep her cool, which unfortunately wasn't working.

The girl very slowly lifted her hand and tugged off her hat, upsetting her teal hair.

Not-so-politely muffled gasps filled the class, even from Mrs. Neru. Luka's eyes squeezed shut and overflowed unnoticeably as she tried to transport somewhere else, anywhere else…

She opened her eyes back up and stared. Stared and stared, even as the history lesson awkwardly began.

Black eyes. Two big, fat, ugly, lumpy, purplish black eyes.

Luka felt as if she had just been hit by a train.

Because she knew she had done this to her.

The rest of the day the two left each other alone. Word had spread of Miku's injuries, and the teachers and staff had allowed her hat to remain shadowing her face with its oversized brim.

Miku made hidden eye contact with Luka once, during lunch as they ate at separate, empty tables. They had both looked away. Luka couldn't stand it anymore. She felt like tearing out her magenta hair, for Pete's sake.

Finally, during last period-Science-the two were forced to sit at the same table and were ordered to talk about the information learned from their Science Project.

They didn't.

They just sat uncomfortably, squirming every once in a while, keeping their heads craned opposite each other. It seemed to pain Miku every time she moved. Luka just knew that, underneath that long-sleeve shirt and jeans, the awful, terrible marks that burned her were not pretty.

"I'm sorry," It came out of Luka's quiet mouth abruptly. Cursing herself, she bit her tongue. She wasn't sure if Miku would be able to hear her over the rowdiness of the classroom, but she turned her blue head slowly and blinked at her once. Drat.

"I am, too." She murmured, barely audible. "I just left the bottle there…it was my fault, and…I deserved it."

Luka was silent.

_Nobody deserves it. _Her mind screamed for her to say. _Get away from him._

Miku turned her head away and whispered something.

"What?" Luka asked gently, straining to hear her.

"I want to do the project at your house from now on." Miku muttered. "That's what I said."

"But my house is-" _–littered with bottles._

"I-" _–know. I don't care._

Their eyes spoke for them as Miku gazed out at Luka from underneath her large hat.

Luka's eyes spoke louder when they overflowed for the second time that day. Gripping the bottom of her seat, she lowered her head and wished for nobody to notice.

"Okay," she rasped hoarsely as if she hadn't had anything to drink for a week. "Sounds good."

And that was that.

So, as Kaito was at his favorite strip club, the two girls crept around in Luka's dirty home. They would silently do their project, not even looking at each other. Every day they would meet, pouring chemicals onto cloth and recording their reactions in the small composition notebook Luka kept.

After three days of only quiet murmuring of the project to each other, Luka spoke up, awkwardly and fumblingly.

"I cleaned the place."

And she had, indeed, cleaned the place. Her red-haired mother hadn't been home for a night or two, so Luka figured it wouldn't hurt much to give the place a bit of a cleaner touch. She had stored (more like stuffed) the bottles into the almost-already-full cabinets, leaving the doors nearly still an inch open from the crammed-in glass cylinders.

Instead of the expected 'Oh, how utterly pleasant' or 'Wow, Luka, you're so amazing for doing that', Miku responded by reaching her hand up and simply tugging off her large hat, leaving it to fall to the ground.

Her injuries being exposed, Miku's face quivered until she was doing a full-fledged sobbing attack into Luka's shoulder. Luka, surprised, flinched away, but slowly, very slowly, laid her hands on Miku's back, holding her tightly to herself uncomfortably but caringly, her own tears streaming down her scarlet cheeks.

What was she supposed to do, huh? Just push the girl away? She had let her get beaten, for God's sake. She couldn't just leave her now.

_Guess this means we're friends now._


	4. Borrowing

"Where do you think we should place the data?" Miku held the typed-up paper in her hands, staring thoughtfully down at the blank white cardboard that sat on the table in front of them. Luka ran her fingers through her knotted pink hair and shrugged, frowning. Her heart remained low in her chest with the thought of what terrible marks could be under Miku's sleeves. Luka' mother had never hit her, but she thought she could somewhat relate.

Somewhat.

Not really.

Luka tried to tell herself that she couldn't be for sure. Maybe he just yelled at her, they went to the beach to make up, and she got sunburned.

Yeah, right.

"Luka, earth to Luka!" Miku giggles snapped Luka out of her stupor. She blinked, coughed, and hunched over the coffee table. She had done a bad job of cleaning up today, completely forgetting to store the bottles away in the cupboards. Her mother would remove them every night-almost all of them-and drink from them. Luka had no clue how she hadn't died of alcohol poisoning as of yet.

"Ah, right, the data," the magenta-haired girl bit her lip and stared down at the blank, white, dullness of the board and furrowed her brow.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Miku grinned widely at Luka. Luka craned her head to look at her, and despite Miku's massive purpling eyelids, Luka couldn't help but make a small smile back.

It wasn't a fake smile as it had been when Miku and Kaito had first rolled up to her house and Luka had had to muster it, it came involuntarily and it was welcomed.

"Dunno, what're you thinking?" Luka's closed-mouth smile turned into an open-mouthed one as she spoke, and Miku clapped her hands.

"Let's spruce up this project!"

The next hour they were at the local crafting store (which was small, unmaintained, fifty minutes away and the best they could do), retrieving pieces of cloth and little packets of shiny baubles from the shelves and tossing them in their plastic shopping basket. Miku was giggling and jumping up and down as she chucked a pink permanent marker into the basket. Luka glanced up at her, raised an eyebrow, and smiled slightly-_very slightly,_ although if you asked her she'd probably never admit to it.

As Luka dragged Miku by the hand away from the crafts and approached the counter, it dawned on her suddenly that she didn't bring her wallet, and that that wallet was, in fact, empty anyway.

"Miku," Luka spoke waveringly, turning to the teal-haired girl.

Miku tittered giddily in response, bouncing excitably.

"Miku!" Despite her strong desire to shout, Luka kept her voice low. The happiness was beginning to get annoying-very annoying. "Please."

Miku cleared her throat and shook her head. "I'm sorry. I've never been out shopping with friends before!"

Luka tried not to frown, but it came naturally.

They had something in common.

"Uh, Miku," Luka collected her words and recalled what she was about to say. "I don't have money to pay for this. I'm…sorry."

The word _sorry _carried a heavy burden with it. _Sorry for everything._

"That's okay!" Miku cheered, waving her hands in the air. Luka turned to see if anyone was looking, but the clerk was flicking through a magazine.

"I've got Kaito's wallet." Miku sniggered. "He doesn't even know, but who cares?"

Luka's body felt weak. _Of course he'll care!_

In an instant, Miku was holding the red shopping basket rather than Luka, poised at the counter and flashing a twenty-dollar bill, produced from a raggedy leather wallet. The cashier was giving her a look, surveying her black eyes but turning away and snapping the bill from her hand.

"Miku!" Luka cried sternly, darting up beside her. "Don't-"

"Already done, already done!" Miku chirruped, clutching two plastic bags by the handles.

The clerk glared at them from behind her celebrity magazine and pointed to a laminated paper sign taped to the register as if she could read Luka's thoughts.

"No refunds," The girl sneered. "Sorry."

The tone was mocking, just as Mrs. Neru's had been when she told Miku to take off her hat.

Miku flinched noticeably and glanced at Luka sideways.

"Come on, Miku," Luka sighed, thanking the clerk halfheartedly and trudging away from the counter. "It's getting dark out."

Miku trailed out behind her. Luka took a plastic bag from her, stretching her arms above her head and sighing.

"We had better get home before dark," Miku murmured, looking to the dusky sky.

Luka grunted a response and shrugged. This town was no good to be in at dark, especially not for teen girls.

"Hey, Luka," Miku's voice nearly startled her. She turned her pink-haired head.

"Are the bottles yours?"

The question didn't surprise Luka as she expected it to.

"No," she muttered. "They're my mom's. She's…I don't know. She's dumb."

She found herself laughing, and Miku doing the same from beside her.

"She works at the strip bar. The Red Barrel or whatever it is." Luka stretched her arms again.

"That's where Kaito goes all the time."

For a moment they were silent, footsteps clicking on the cracked sidewalk.

"Why does he do it?" Luka stuttered, not thinking.

"Why does anyone do it? I do stupid things. I kind of deserve it."

"No!" Luka turned on the ball of her foot and grabbed Miku by her cloaked shoulders.

"No, you don't deserve it! You're…" She hesitated. "You're a good person."

Miku shook her head and offered a meek smile.

"Let's head back," she suggested quietly. "We have a board to make pretty."

Luka was about to cry and felt stupid for it. Why was this girl so oblivious? Or was she just pretending?

"Hey, Luka,"

"What?" She tried not to snap.

"Where's your dad?"

Luka wondered why she was even answering these questions. Miku could spread some rumors about her.

It dawned on Luka quite suddenly that Miku had no one to tell rumors to.

"Don't know," she sighed heavily. "Apparently he left when I was little or something."

"Wimp," Miku snickered, and Luka burst out in laughter.

Maybe Miku wasn't so bad.


	5. Clean Dishes

"I like it!" Miku exclaimed, clapping her hands and giggling.

"So do I." Luka grinned, folding her arms across her chest.

The two stared down at their finished project board, painted green with flowers and vines drawn around the edges-a bit irrelevant, but pretty cool looking nonetheless. Sparkles of glitter coated the corners, and a few bells jingled along the sides, tied with thread. Their data and conclusions were posted strategically across the board, and the strips of cloth dangled delicately from it.

"It looks so cool! Thanks for doing this with me, Luka." Miku wrapped a friendly arm around the pink-haired girl's shoulder, and Luka glanced away, trying hard not to shrug out of her grip.

"Er, yeah. You too, Miku." Luka paused. "And…I'm really, really sorry about…everything."

"No need to apologize, Luka." Miku chirruped, but it was hard for Luka to believe, looking at her purple eyelids.

"Want something to eat?" Luka was shocked with herself for offering, but the words had already slipped off of her tongue.

"Sure! What've you got?" Miku bounced around excitedly, leading the way into the bottle-filled kitchen. Luka trudged along behind her, shoving as many bottles away from the main counter as possible.

"Most of the food we have is frozen, and our microwave isn't the best in the world, but you can have some chicken strips if you want." Luka explained, tugging open the freezer door and glancing inside. "That's about it."

"You live off of chicken strips?" Miku asked wonderingly, brushing past Luka and pulling the bag of chicken out of the otherwise empty freezer.

"And tap water." Luka laughed. "Well, I don't really just eat chicken. I borrow money from my mom and get stuff from the gas station."

"Yummy," Miku ripped open the bag of chicken strips ferociously. _She must be pretty hungry. I haven't seen her like this, _Luka thought sorrowfully. _Kaito must not feed her very well other than the empty pizza boxes around the house._

Miku retrieved a plate from the stack of dirty plastic dishes from the counter, and Luka's stomach lurched. She was used to eating off of dirty dishes?

"Miku, wait." Luka bent down and plucked a paper plate from one of the half-bare cabinets. "Here."

Miku seemed shocked as she grasped the paper plate in her hands. It was like she'd never seen one before.

"Th-thank you, Luka!" She smiled brightly. "For the food and everything!"

Luka nodded, face burning. Miku was too nice.

"I suggest you cook them for four minutes or so," Luka popped the plate of chicken in the microwave. "Just 'cause our microwave sucks majorly."

Miku laughed loudly at this, like it was the first joke she's ever heard. Luka smiled to herself silently-she had never had anybody laugh at her jokes. Rather, she'd never had anybody to tell jokes too.

"Say, do you have anything else to drink other than…" Miku's voice trailed off, sounding awkward and trying not to offend Luka.

"Other than a bunch of disgusting alcohol?" She laughed. "We have an empty bottle of juice in the fridge and tap water. Is that cool?"

"That's cool," The blue-haired girl responded, clearly glad that she hadn't said anything rude. "You have clean cups, too?"

"Yep," _Why the hell would she ask something like that? Is she unaware that, normally, people had clean dishware in their houses? _"Here you go."

She reached into another cabinet chock-full of alcohol and produced a large paper cup.

Miku's eyes sparkled, and despite the black and blue marks, Luka couldn't help but think that she looked like an energetic little kid. Which was exactly what she acted like.

"Water, water! I haven't had water out of a clean cup since my parents were alive!"

Luka's heart crumbled. Since her parents were alive? That was…that was just…

"Oh, sorry." Miku murmured, taking a small sip out of her cup after filling it. "I didn't mean to say that."

Luka tried to speak, but all that came out was a faint squeaking sound.

"It's okay, Miku." She managed after a moment, coughing.

The loud beeping of the microwave was a warmly invited interruption for Luka. She turned to it, breathing a relieve sigh and pulling it from the microwave.

After setting it on the counter and nibbling from one warm piece, Miku had devoured the remaining four pieces and was already filling her paper cup with more water.

Surprised, Luka laughed without realizing it. Miku turned to her. It took her a moment to laugh back, but she did, and the sunny sound warmed Luka's heart right back up.

Despite the newly learned fact that she was an orphan, Luka felt like she knew her better than anyone else, and Miku knew her better than anyone, even her own mother. They didn't talk much. This day with Miku was the largest conversation she had ever held with someone, which astonished Luka herself.

"I'm sorry I said that my parents are dead," Miku muttered.

"No need to be sorry, Miku." Luka staggered. "I'm sorry."

"It was a car wreck." Miku approached Luka, glimmering eyes glinting in the dimming lights of the kitchen. "Happened two year ago. That's when Kaito met me, and…"

"And?" Luka gripped her shoulders, ready for a sob-fest.

"And a year later he started getting mean."

This didn't surprise Luka that she would admit to his aggression. It was sort of obvious, despite her attempting to cover it up. Rumor had spread around the school after the incident in History class, and everyone knew about her marks already.

The waterworks finally came, directly into Luka's shoulder.

She felt her own tears coming, sympathizing with Miku. She blinked them back and gripped Miku's arms. She didn't realize when she did it, but she rested her head on Miku's shoulder. A friend was a friend, even if they were a new one.

"Please don't tell anyone." Miku sobbed whisperingly. "About anything."

"I promise," Luka murmured, not detecting in the moment how dumb and hard of a secret that would be to keep.

"I have nobody to tell, Miku." She pulled away awkwardly. "Anyway, I wouldn't. I promise. Pinky promise."

Miku smiled, her face red from crying and her nose dripping, and entwined her pinky with Luka's.

"Thanks, Luka."

"Come on, let's get some tissues." Luka smirked meekly.

Five minutes later they were sitting on the ratty couch, both crying but smiling, talking about everything. School, desires, life.

"I wish I could've seen that!" Miku exclaimed after Luka told the story of the school-wide prankster Big Al positioning a bucket of water above Mrs. Neru's door and completely dousing her. "I couldn't go that day."

Her eyes misted some more, and Luka handed her another tissue.

"Do something about him," Luka murmured suddenly, but Miku shook her head.

"I can't, He's…he's…"

"A big fat wimp? Yes, he is. Tell him that and he'll leave you alone!"

Miku's eyes sparkled. "Good idea…"

They sat against the couch in silence, smiling to themselves and not realizing that, technically, they were smiling at each other.

A friend was a friend, even if they were a new one.


	6. Return to the Library

"Hey, Luka…I was thinking we could go to the movies together sometime!"

The words made Luka come to an abrupt halt, nearly tripping over her own toes.

"The…movies?" She sputtered, turning on the ball of her foot. Her eyes widened as she realized that Miku was back to wearing a short-sleeved turquoise shirt that showed off the shocking amount of bruises and cuts displayed jutting in her soft skin.

"Whoa," Luka began, hesitated, and blinked. "Miku, why are you wearing that?"

"What, you don't like it? It's comfortable."

People in the hallways were pointing.

"Miku, maybe, um…here, I have a long-sleeved shirt in my locker, do you want that?"

"Why would I need it?"

"Because of your…"

"My what, Luka?" Miku's mouth was drawn up in a tight smile.

_God, she's backed me into a corner. Why? _Luka gritted her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut, willing herself to transport anywhere but here, anywhere-just as she had when Miku had revealed her black eyes in Mrs. Neru's class.

"Miku…" Luka stepped backwards, opened her eyes, wavered, and returned her steps until she was close enough to Miku to whisper audibly.

"Miku, please. You know that people…people are…" Luka swallowed dryly. "Mean. Please."

"I'm not afraid of a few bullies, silly," Miku stuck her tongue out and winked, smiling. "I'm me. No matter what."

_No matter what. _Miku. Miku was herself-right. And if this was her display of bravery, then so be it. Let it happen.

Luka sucked in a deep breath and released it away from Miku's face, realizing that she hadn't brushed her teeth that day.

"Don't worry," Miku seemed to suddenly have mind-reading powers. "I didn't brush my teeth this morning, either."

She seemed to say this sentence louder than any other, practically shouting it to the strangers in the halls as if she was screaming through a megaphone.

Luka couldn't help but laugh. Miku really was quite brave.

_I like that._

"So, Luka," Miku twirled a loose strand of her turquoise hair around her finger and grinned. People were still pointing, but with the dispersing amount of students as they went to their first period classes, less were noticing Miku. "Wanna go to the movies after school today?"

"Sure," Luka felt like she was forgetting something. She glanced at the crowd and spotted a blond boy trailing along beside a girl. His hair looked a bit like-

_Damn it!_

"Oh! Sorry," Luka stuttered. The bell was ringing. She and Miku began to quickly stride to their first period class of Geometry, which they shared-just like the rest of their classes. "I have to meet someone after school today, but come and knock on my door around four tomorrow, okay?"

Miku didn't seem dejected at all, only brighter.

"Awesome! I can't wait!" They filed in through the open wooden door. "This is going to be so much fun."

After they took their seats and made it through the rest of the day, Luka hurried across the winding sidewalks to her destination, mentally swearing and yelling at herself all the way.

As she burst through the doors to the building, she nearly shouted her friend's name before realizing that you were supposed to be quiet in libraries. An aide that looked suspiciously like the girl from her school who took swigs of her flask glared up at her from behind the counter.

"Rin," she whispered repeatedly as she cautiously turned around the aisles of books with cracked spines. "Rin!"

She finally spotted the girl, lying back in a puffy red armchair with assorted stains coating it.

"Luka…" Rin muttered without turning around. "Where have you _been?_"

"I'm so sorry, Rin." Luka stammered quickly. "What with the science project, and Miku, and-"

Rin stood, watery eyes glinting in the spotty, dimming light above them. She stomped her little foot.

_Crap, please don't have a tantrum._

"I wish you would see me more! Len is like…sick! And I have no one to play with. You haven't visited me at all! And I thought we were buddies…friends 'till the end!"

Luka's tongue gathered up in her mouth like a rope. What was she supposed to say to that? Nobody was near them, but Luka was positive that anyone in the library could hear them and would be shushing them any moment now.

"I'm sorry, Rin! I said I was sorry. Miku is…" Rin hung her head as Luka spoke, sending a sharp pang shooting through Luka's chest. "Miku is having a hard time, and I have to help her."

"Why can't you help _me_ instead?" Rin stomped her feet again and was waving her arms about frantically, approaching Luka slowly. "My family has hard times, too! She's not the only one!"

Rin was sobbing into Luka's abdomen in a flash, just as Miku had the other night. Luka couldn't do anything but stroke the back of Rin's head and shush her. She felt like a big sister to her before, but now…maybe she was a mother.

"I'm sorry, Luka," Rin's muffled cries sounded from beneath Luka's arms.

"You don't have to be sorry for anything," Luka was choking up, and her eyes were doing something stupid.

_Don't be dumb, she's just emotional right now. She'll get over it. _One side of Luka's head snapped.

_Says you, _grumbled the other.

"It's just that…I think…you shouldn't get so close to Miku…she's just your partner for now. Then you can go your separate ways and never have to deal with each other ever again after the science project." Rin pulled her head away from Luka but kept her arms around her, sniffling. Luka craned her neck to look down at her reddening, wet face.

"But, Rin, you don't understand." Luka closed her eyes and shook her head slowly. "Miku is…I mean…I-"

A hand cupped over Luka's shoulder, and she turned so fast Rin's arms flew away from her.

"I'm sorry, but if you don't quiet down we'll have to ask you to leave," the aide sneered, her brown hair swinging as she bobbed her head triumphantly.

Luka nodded, turned and squeezed Rin's small hand. The tiny blonde girl smiled meekly up at her and dropped her hand from Luka's grip.

"I'll go, don't worry," Luka muttered as the aide gave her another look.

What if Rin was right? What if she really shouldn't be Miku's friend? Maybe Rin was right about everything.

_I still don't want to leave her, _Luka's mind reeled, and she gritted her teeth as she pushed open the glass doors and fled the library.

It was only as she trudged home when Luka realized how heavy her backpack was. She shrugged it into a comfortable enough position and sighed deeply. Her meeting with Rin had left her sad and broken. At least she would get to have a bit of fun tomorrow when she went to the movies with Miku. But maybe she shouldn't be friends with Miku…

It dawned suddenly on Luka like a ton of bricks how quickly she and Miku had become good friends. Maybe it was just Luka's maternal instinct, but she had cared for Miku immediately. From when she spilled bleach on herself to when Luka found the bruises…she felt like they should stick together.

She felt like she should protect her.

Running a hand through her pink hair, Luka adjusted her red backpack once more and sighed.

What a day.


End file.
